Malik's "global history of ethics" opens back in Homer's day - a time when, as he puts it, there was no philosophy, only poetry, and people simply didn't think of human beings as moral agents in the way we do now.

Morality was the province of the gods, we were merely their puppets and virtue had a different meaning altogether. It's an apt place to begin the story of the quest to impose a rational framework on morality, from the pre-Socratics through the growth of monotheism and beyond, as moral philosophy is not just about doing the right thing in a given set of circumstances but also the development of our sense of our own selves. Trying to place each school of thought in the context of its own time, Malik demonstrates how the questions raised by Socrates more than two millennia ago have troubled us ever since. There are many philosophy primers on the market, but this is a particularly accessible take.